I like DKM's listed on the front of this web site and my own. Here is my recipe I made last night.Cheese on bottom then other topping then a good thick coating of sauce.Makes 2 10-inch Chicago deep dish.You can use 9" also but 10 is better1 teaspoon bread machine yeast or instant like SAF Perfect Rise1 teaspoon raw sugar8 oz water + 1 Tablespoon (70deg)3 tablespoons Crisco zero trans fat1 tablespoons Clasico Olive Oil16 oz KA Bread flour or unbleached AP flour but not White-Lily2 tablespoons yellow corn meal1 ½ Teaspoon salt

KitchenAid instructionsPut everything in the bowl except for the Cornmeal, Crisco and oil mix on stir speed until it pulls away from the sides then another 2 minutes. Add Cornmeal, Crisco and oil change to speed 2 to knead the dough for 12 minutes. Stay with the mixer, this stiff dough will pop out the bowl on the lifting bowl machines. Leave in mixer bowl for 5 hours in a kitchen or until it doubles, then divide and roll into 2 balls. Place in cooler for 24 hours.

Remove and flatten the dough into fat disk 3 hours in advance of panning

When ready to cook flatten one dough in a 10 “pan with olive oil in the bottom until the dough covers the bottom. Use fingers from the top to pinch up the sides about ½ way up the pan and about 1/8” thick. Bake on middle rack in oven preheated to 425F for 20 minutes for a dark pan and 25 min for a light colored pan.

Crusty, sorry for the delay, we had to make an unexpected trip to Atlanta this weekend.Like DKM said, on Chicago I use hand slices of moz about 1/8-3/16" thick of Poly-O Part Skim covering the bottom without overlapping.

Has anyone made a Papa Del's ? The picture looks great. Did you follow the recipe? Is there a better deep dish sausage/pepperoni pie recipe out there ?

Well, I have made the Papa Dels recipe several times and it's very good. Unlike a classic Chicago style pizza with its biscuit-like crust, Papa Dels deep dish crust is more dense and bread-like. The recipe on this site produces a crust very similar to that of Papa Dels restaurant in Champaign/Urbana.

I tried this my first time last night (following clone recipe on main page). My results were for the most part fantastic, but I plan to make some minor changes. First off, my baking times were WAY off from what was directed in the recipe. My pizza "looked" done after 15 minutes, far shy of the 45 minutes. Even with baking times "varying" I thought that was a big discrepancy. I was worried that it would be still doughy in the center since it was so thick though, so I forced myself to keep it in for 20 more minutes. I should have trusted my instincts as this was the only downfall of the pizza. The crust was over done and ruined the flavor (it was dark dark brown). However, I still think I need to keep it in longer than 15 minutes due to the thickness. Probably 25 minutes would have been appropriate at 400 degrees.

Anyway, it was also my first time using 6 in 1 tomato sauce and WOW, very very good!I did a layer of provolone slices, then a small amount of sauce, then I did a layer of mozzarella, then I topped it with a heavy amount of sauce. Then grated with parmasean and romano cheese.